I’ve finished reading Fredrik Backman’s trilogy, Bear Town, Us Against You, and The Winners. Backman is one of my favorite contemporary authors. Readers get to know his characters in their day to day routines: what they eat; if they walk, run, or drive; if they’re good at hockey or not. Backman breaks the rule about…
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Perfect Pairing: The Most Dangerous Game and Candy Land
Looking for a fun way to end the year that is still about literature, but is not an essay or a test? Try transforming a short story, novel, or poem into a board game. For example, Candy Land is a great game that fits a journey or pursuit type of story. Students can use an…
A Gem of a Poem: maggie and milly and molly and may by e. e. cummings
A poem to add to any teacher’s toolbox: maggie and milly and molly and may by e. e. cummings. Today’s choice is inspired by my daughter, Mia, whose closest friends’ names all begin with “M” (plus one friend whose name begins with “A”). When she speaks about her friends, ee cummings’ poem comes to mind…
What I’m Reading: The Essay by Robin Yocum
Posted on Author Jill M SmithPosted in Care Givers, Teacher Inspiration, What I'm ReadingLeave a Reply
I love discovering an author whom I’ve never read – sometimes never heard of – through friends or other recommendations. When I read a book by such an author, I am apprehensive of what my reaction will be. Just because a friend or family member liked it, will I? Robin Yocum is an example of…
A Gem of a Poem: Morning Song by Cat Stevens
This time of year, most of us are looking for signs of spring – light green buds on the willow tree, yellow blooms of daffodils and forsythia. For those of us who live in climates where the beauty of winter becomes gray and dreary by March, April brings the promise of warmer temperatures and vibrant…
A Gem of a Poem: I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth
The change of seasons is an ideal time to assign creative writing, especially poetry. Connecting feelings with themes of change and hope can inspire even the most reluctant student to take a chance at waxing poetic. While each season has natural changes to anticipate, something about sighting the first flowers of spring makes anyone smile…
Using Art in the English classroom
Posted on Author Jill M SmithPosted in Art in the English Classroom, Teacher InspirationLeave a Reply
Are you stuck for a different writing prompt for your students? I love to visit art museums, and on a recent weekend trip to Boston, I visited the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. I find that I am drawn paintings with light used in surprising or unusual ways. In the painting above, similar to one…
The Red Wheelbarrow: A Gem of a Poem
William Carlos Williams’s poem, “The Red Wheelbarrow,” takes a quaint, domestic scene and turns it into a metaphor. A metaphor of what? That is up to the reader. When teaching in New York City many years ago, a colleague used this poem as a springboard for students to write short poems centered around an object…
A Gem of a Poem: Mother to Son
“Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes I often see requests from teachers for short poems that demonstrate various poetic techniques. Whether for a quick bell ringer lesson, an intro to a longer unit, or a variation on a theme in a longer work, short poems are excellent tools for teachers to have in their toolboxes.…
Inspiration for Teachers
The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy I remember reading Pat Conroy’s The Water is Wide in graduate school, 30ish years ago, mesmerized by the narrator’s experiences as a new teacher in an unusual environment – an island off the coast of South Carolina that is nearly deserted and seemingly forgotten by the mainland. The…
